At least nine bodies have washed ashore on Turkey’s southern coast in the past week, with officials suspecting that most were refugees who went missing in December, Agence France-Presse reported, citing local media.
Three bodies were found Monday on the Mediterranean shores of Antalya near Muğla, bringing the total number to nine, Turkish media reported.
Local officials are weighing the possibility that most drifted ashore after a boat carrying 90 refugees sank in the Mediterranean last month, the governor’s office said in a social media statement Sunday.
Shoes and clothes from five of the victims appear to have been manufactured in Syria, local officials said.
The Lebanese Embassy in Ankara on December 11 reported the disappearance of a boat with 90 refugees on board that had sailed from waters between Lebanon and Syria toward the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 3,000 refugees went missing in the Mediterranean in 2023, the highest death toll since 2017.